My maths teacher

 My maths teacher.

What if I requested you to visualise sitting in your 7th class at your school, and suddenly a new teacher for your maths walks in escorted by the “princi”?

It happened to me, exactly.

The next few moments baffled me! The principal said “this is going to be your maths teacher now! You are very lucky to get such a teacher. He was teaching to post graduate students in a college. ( My eyes widened and my thoughts were “Whhhat¿? Am I ‘hearing’ it okay?”) Let me warn you, any complaint from this teacher, against any student, I will not even enquire into the complaint, but will make sure that the T.C. will not allow him to get admission into any other Good school”( precise words 😂… govt. Schools are open to any kid, not ‘good' schools)

This introduction served a ‘sacred’ purpose for me, though I wasn't mature enough to realise it's sanctity. The “worry” part never scared me, because of my chemistry then😜

This teacher never USED the text book. Other teachers might have only obviated the REFERENCE to a text book, but couldn't manage to avoid the “use” of its contents!

He caused ‘hardships’ to all the students, when the examples & homework stuff was extempore.  I was an oddity. I loved his classes🤣. While a frown precedes on the faces of most others as he walks in daily, eagerness sprouts afresh each day into me🙏

Let me quell the suspense in my readers🙏

Why did he quit teaching post graduate students and opt to teach 7th class kids?

Because,

Our society had indulged into the stupidity by then, of using very negative kind of “standards of measurement” used as tools and yardsticks for evaluation of an intellectual, highly spiritual and unimaginably dedicated teacher.”  Obviously, he failed.  Use a crooked scale to check a straight line, and that line will “fail” the test. The ugly bends in that scale will “give admissible evidence “ that this line is not alongside the scale 🤣

Each lecture was a “seminar “( if we care to examine the true meaning of the word ‘seminar’) . I don't know about others. But I found myself looking at the concept of concepts ( concept formation) when he initiated us into the”abstractions” of algebra. 🙏😂. 40 years later, I understood effortlessly ( thanks to this teacher, for laying foundation of concepts into me) when a retiree from the highest mathematical reasearch institution in India, a legend in his field, said to me, in a private chat “maths turns into a “language “ transcending it's nature as a ‘science’ after a certain level of study and deep research”  

I could “see” 40 years later, that this teacher of my 7th was in sync with the methodology of Rishis of ancient Bharat ( all the Rishis were invariably, mathematicians of the HIGHEST order🙏). 

I don't know, if the reader is able to “see” a striking semblance? A student of ancient Gurukul gets the “best” teacher possible, at the age of 7.  And here, I got a teacher, qualified to teach final year of postgraduate in maths. Only the numerals are same “7”. Otherwise, the age is too late for me, by 6 more years😭, since pristine intellect fades a little by then!

Several dozens of instances, and incidents related to this_teacher remains fresh in my memory, which can adequately substantiate the fact that he was a teacher ‘par-excellence’. ( Very soon, he was allowed to teach higher classes too, thanks to 2 other excellent teachers in maths, who cheerfully became a catalyst and communicator to the management about the worth of this genius🙏)

This is one of the rare occasions when I feel painfully aware of my inadequacy in doing justice to a blog. I don't have the ability to admire and appreciate this teacher to the level he deserves🙏

Inadequately yours,

psn(25 Oct 2025)